As the great man's guest must produce his good stories or songs at the evening banquet, as the platform orator exhibits his telling facts at mid-day, so the journalist lies under the stern obligation of extemporizing his lucid views, leading ideas, and nutshell truths for the breakfast table.
Cardinal J. H. Newman, Preface to The Idea of a University, 1852

Thursday, June 9, 2011

All the beauties I love most are transient

Don Cupitt has just published a new book: "The Fountain: A Secular Theology". I'll buy a copy, but in the meantime there's a review of it in the latest Sea of Faith magazine, which includes the following quote from the book:
We cannot conceive personal life except as temporal, and if I reflect I find that all the beauties I love most are transient, and that it is precisely for their transience that I love them. I cannot coherently wish them anything but transient and the same goes for myself
I remember someone once telling me about "The Sacrament of the Present Moment". Something about the fact that we only ever exist in the present, so our relationship to God is only ever 'now'.

I find these sorts of ideas - combined with a feeling that we have no idea what 'time' is - much more satisfactory than any idea of eternal life, though I have to admit if still feels that I need faith to believe them. They feel right, but there's still part of me that's not quite convinced.

Bike lanes.

As well as death, faith and football, another thing I have strong views on is cycling.

As I once texted to a discussion on Radio 5 Live :-) I think we cyclists are the saints of the transport world and are badly done to.

Here's some evidence: